Investment manager VanEck, an issuer of spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) says that if BTC becomes the global reserve asset, its price could top the stratospheric level of $52 million by 2050.
Bitcoin To The Moon? VanEck Thinks So
VanEck foresees Bitcoin potentially hitting $61 trillion in total market value — or some $2.9 million per BTC by the year 2050 once the base case scenario comes to be, a Wednesday report penned by Matthew Sigel and Patrick Bush said.
While the bear scenario sees BTC becoming a key medium of exchange in local and global trade and skyrocketing to $130,000, the incredibly bullish scenario puts the bellwether crypto’s price at over $52 million.
According to the report, Bitcoin’s mega-upsurge will be partly caused by a drop in the world’s leading economies, including the United States, the European Union, and Japan. VanEck’s team expects a loss of confidence in current reserve currencies, with Bitcoin becoming an attractive alternative as a result. If scaling networks improve, the OG crypto could reach a price of $52,386,207 by 2050.
“In this environment of uncertainty, businesses and consumers worldwide are likely to recognize the endemic flaws of alternative fiat currencies, thereby generating demand for a neutral medium of exchange with immutable property rights and predictable monetary policy,” the report said. “This is where Bitcoin comes in.”
Although gold already has a long-standing track record as a global reserve asset, the analysts said limitations associated with logistics, security, and financial integration are hurdles to returning to the gold standard.
The two added that “as BTC becomes more useful and valuable, central banks and long-term investors will want to hold more BTC, reducing the amount available in the floating supply.” That could propel the price up even further.
The report continued that the expansion of scaling networks, often known as layer-2s, will play a key role in overcoming the Bitcoin blockchain’s bottlenecks and scaling problems, which hinder BTC from being a useful medium of exchange. This industry could collectively be worth roughly $7.6 trillion by 2050, or around 12% of BTC’s total value.
“Crucially, we believe that Bitcoin’s scalability issues which have been the primary barrier to its widespread adoption, will be resolved by emerging Bitcoin Layer-2 (L2) solutions,” according to the VanEck team.
Sigel and Bush flag problems with mining, competition from other crypto assets, and joint efforts by governments across the globe to restrict or ban Bitcoin as potential risks to the flagship crypto’s continued adoption.
